Mammoth Mountain Issues First "Dump Alert" Of The Season After Much Needed Storm

More snow fell on Mammoth Mountain, CA during the Winter '22/'23 season than any in recorded history. The start of Winter '23/'24 has been the exact opposite.

Thankfully, Mother Nature appears to be getting her act together. Mammoth is reporting 13-15 inches of new snow on the morning of January 3, 2023:

It's no surprise that a line formed this morning to ski the fresh snow. Mammoth has seen just 39 inches in total this season at The Main Lodge, well below average for this time of the year.

OpenSnow forecaster Mikhail Korotkin compared snowfall data from previous seasons at Mammoth to better paint the picture at just how dry this season has been.

As of 12/31 (before the recent storm dumped 13-15 inches), Mammoth had totaled just 26 inches of snow from Oct-Dec. According to Korotkin, that's just 22% of average.

To make matters worse, it's the third worst start to a season since '69, and the worst start since '99/'00. Not what you want to hear if you enjoy skiing powder.

Another storm is expected to hit Mammoth this upcoming weekend with storm totals forecasted in the 10-20+ inch range. Could the tide be turning?

It's unclear what Mother Nature has in store for the remainder of the season, but Korotkin dug deeper into Mammoth's lowest early-season snowfall totals to see how those seasons finished up.

See below:

With an active El Niño pattern affecting weather this winter, Korotkin notes that only two of Mammoth's ten worst starts to the season were El Niño years.

The rest were either La Niña or 'La Nada' years.

With that in mind, the '86/'87 season is the last El Niño year that started poorly, and unfortunately for Mammoth skiers this year, it ended poorly.

According to the data shared by Korotkin, just 43 inches fell from Oct-Dec of '86 and 149 inches fell from Jan-June of '87 bringing the seasonal total to just 192 inches.

That might still sound like a lot of snow to folks on the east coast, but 192 inches is just 48% of Mammoth's reported average of 400 inches.

The worst season documented in Korotkin's data was '75/'76 when the mountain totaled just 90 inches of snow. That season was affected by a weak El Niño.

View the 11 images of this gallery on the original article

It's very unlikely that Mammoth will ever top last season's record snowfall, and that's okay. I'm sure the locals are still tired from shoveling as late as last June.

With that said, I think every skier across the country could use a little more snow in their lives right about now, including those in Mammoth.

If this season ends up being a dud, however, don't fret. Skiing is skiing and the mountain is open. Go make the most of it with friends and family. You won't regret it no matter how little snow there is.

Cheers to everybody skiing and riding powder this morning at Mammoth. I hope there are many more days to come!

Related: Meteorologist Predicts 2+ Feet Of Snow For Pacific Northwest Ski Resorts

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